Beauty venture: dreams by Toby Neal
Dreams of an open road.
Dreams have a lot of possible functions, and no one's entirely sure what they “mean” or do–but we do know, when we're prevented from dreaming, we go mad. Here are a few interesting articles in Psychology Today on the function of dreams: Why do we dream? and here's another: Recurring Final Exam Dream: why do so many of us have it?
In Jungian psychology, dreams are a “message in a bottle” from our subconscious to our conscious mind. That's the metaphor I use with clients. You can watch the bottle go by, or you can fetch it, uncork it, read the message, and consider what it's asking.
Dreams can also be forms of rehearsing and preparation for something we anticipate. When you get a new job or learn a new skill, you may find yourself dreaming about it until a level of comfort is achieved.
Dreams can also be a way the brain processes information into long term memory. Some people report dreams where they see the future (I've had a couple of those) and spiritually, and they can be the whispers of angels or demons.
I treat my dreams with respect. Often they are asking a question, or making a call to action from my subconscious.
How do you treat your dreams?
I’ve had nightmares almost consistently for as long as I can remember, so I’m not really friends with my dreams. 🙁 Pursued by a monster nobody else can see, being verbally attacked or abandoned by people I care about (but am not confident how they feel about me), rape dreams (I’ve never been raped)… Those are the usual themes. And yeah, I get where they come from, feelings of powerlessness and the constant fear that I tend to carry, but I still don’t appreciate their frequency. Sigh.
Shalora, in Jungian dream analysis all the figures in the dreams are aspects of self. It would be worth working with your therapist to explore what parts of you are attacking what other parts, symbolically. I find the TTAQ dreamwork format helpful:
Title
Theme
Affect (feelings in the dream, overall affect)
Question the dream is asking.
Hope thats’ some food for thought. Sometimes, things we think are “bad” might not be, so much. For instance, death in dreams is a symbol of upcoming change.
Aloha
Toby
I totally agree with treating dreams with respect. I don’t dream often but when I do they are usually a “foretelling” of something coming. I think too that dreaming can be a way of working through things in our subconscious that maybe we don’t want to face in our day-to-day reality. I love the strangeness of dreams. I love that sometimes we can’t figure out the dream but in time the message comes through like a completed jigsaw puzzle.
Great post Toby.